My Interview with Open Up Your Bag author Mike Lawson

D-Kid: What inspired you to write this book?

Mike: I have always really loved children’s books. I like the illustrations and all of the different types. Some books have elaborate pictures that tell the story. Others have really simple pictures that accompany the text. There are such a large and diverse number of books to explore.

D-Kid: What is it like living with diabetes?

Mike: As you know, it sort of just depends on the day. Some days are tough, and my Dexcom alarms high or low every freaking hour. And other days I can skate through with steady BGs and not a care in the world. I guess that unpredictability makes this stuff manageable though. If I thought that every day was going to be tough, diabetes might be a lot harder.

D-Kid: Why did you decide to make the characters animals?

Mike: That’s a good question. I wanted this book to tell young people with diabetes that there are other people out there that have diabetes too. I intentionally was trying to make the characters look nothing like the people that I thought would be reading it… and I just assumed that there would be no lady penguins picking up the book. Using animals was an easy way to easily ensure that all of the characters were telling the kids reading it that there are other people out here doing what you do.

Animals are also way more interesting than humans. A book filled with four human characters is not as fun to draw as a book with a panda, penguin, raccoon, and lion. I got to use more color and shapes. People rarely have a huge mane. Drawing humans doesn’t allow me to have fun with sketching out a penguin beak. I feel that having animal characters helped me make the book a little more interesting for the audience I was drawing it for.

D-Kid: What was your favorite part of writing the book?

Mike: I really enjoy creating a color palette. For any new project, I usually start by just picking out a handful of colors that I try to stick to when illustrating. This part of the process really gets me excited to start doing the work and helps me set the tone for what I’m going to create. This is the palette I used for this book and the DiabetesDoodles.com website:

D-Kid: Who is your hero?

Mike: I look up to a lot of people. Sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury had a big impact on me. Way before I was old enough to understand his books I got to meet him and I fell in love with the idea of who he was… it had nothing to do with what he wrote. I just really wanted to be a writer. I wanted to create something permanent. As I’ve grown, I’ve come to really love his books and the pure fantasy that he writes. And I’ve also come to really appreciate how prolific he was — he wrote 27 books and published more than 600 short stories. This dude wasn’t just talented; he had hustle.

D-Kid: How long have you had diabetes?

Mike: I was diagnosed a little later than you; when I was 20 years old I found out that I had diabetes, but I was mistakenly misdiagnosed with type 2 at first. It took almost a year of unsuccessfully battling high blood sugar with diet and exercise that I finally found out I had type 1.

D-Kid: How did your diabetes affect the book?

Mike: Having diabetes certainly inspired me to write and illustrate this book. But diabetes doesn’t affect my drawing at all. When I work on a long-ish project like drawing this book, I do spend a lot of time thinking about the audience that will ultimately be seeing the finished product. So when I was doing most of the work on this book I did spend a lot of time looking at some of the resources out there for parents of children with diabetes… the different blogs and books (like your mom’s). Since I don’t have a kid with diabetes, it was helpful to read stories from those perspectives because it is a much different life than the one that I have.

While we were waiting for our most recent endo visit we were pleasantly surprised to see stacks of the Coco and ESPN books about diabetes as well as the Family magazines, which are all part of the partnership between Disney and Lilly Diabetes. We are big fans of the Coco books in our house…and it’s not just Q. Her brother has copies of each Coco book and enjoys reading them together. He always insists that we also read the Q&A at the end of each book which is quite informational about the basics of diabetes and is a great tool for teaching younger classmates about diabetes in terms they can understand.

At the 2015 Children With Diabetes Friends For Life (CWD FFL), Lilly Diabetes announced the latest Disney book featuring MWD* Coco titled “Go, Team Coco!”

My kids were excited that this book has not one, but three stories. It gets their approval.

In this book (a prequel to the other Coco books?) Coco is diagnosed with diabetes, learns to manage diabetes, and finds out if she can still be a soccer player. She teaches Goofy about choosing healthy snacks (everyone should have a healthy snack during soccer) and that someone with diabetes can eat cupcakes. Coco asks her doctor if she can still play soccer and he explains that she just needs to check her blood sugar and be prepared for lows. We learn that her care team includes supportive friends who are eager to learn, her parents and aunt who take care of her, and the nurse and doctor.

As with the other books, there is a Q&A at the end of the book. This time the follow up questions are asked of the child with diabetes reading the book.

From Lilly: “Go, Team Coco! is three stories in one book. Readers will learn about how Coco and her family cope with her diagnosis at the hospital, the new routines they establish at home, and her first follow-up visit to the doctor. Coco, along with other Disney characters, helps readers understand that with proper planning and management, children with diabetes and their families can still have fun and do things that children without the condition can do.”

You can read most of the Coco and ESPN themed diabetes books on the T1 Everyday Magic website. (This newest one isn’t available digitally yet.) The Coco books have been translated into 30 languages and are available in 50 countries. Pediatric endocrinology offices have this line of books available at no charge to patients. If your office doesn’t have them, tell them to ask their Lilly rep to give them a supply.

*I coined the phrase MWD (monkey with diabetes) with the release of the first Coco book.

We are big fans of the American Girl dolls, books, and movies and we are fortunate that our friends at AG send us some pretty awesome stuff from time to time (this goes back to my days as a “mommy blogger”). The Girl of the Year for 2012 is McKenna, a young gymnast who has some issues at school. It’s very fitting that she’s a gymnast given that the summer Olympics takes place this year. Q took gymnastics for a couple of years, but we stopped this spring because she has too many activities going on at once.

We’ve been reading McKenna’s book at bedtime and hadn’t quite finished it when her movie McKenna Shoots for the Stars aired on TV last weekend. But that didn’t stop Q from watching it even though now we know how the story ends.

From the book: “Ten-year-old McKenna has always been a good student-and great at gymnastics. So when her grades suddenly begin to fall, her teacher suggests a little extra help from a tutor. McKenna is horrified until she meets her tutor, Josie, a super-confident girl who also happens to be in a wheelchair. Josie encourages McKenna to focus on her strengths and work toward her goals one day at a time. But just as McKenna begins to shine in school, she’s sidelined with a gymnastics injury–and her confidence unravels. Now she’s worried about her grades and earning a spot on the competitive gymnastics team. Can she find a way to believe in herself again?”

Q is smitten with the doll and keeps brushing her hair over and over again. I have to say that of all the American Girl dolls, this one’s hair is almost an exact match to Q’s. Every time we get a new catalog in the mail she circles the wheelchair and this story has prompted another request for it…maybe Christmas?

I’m sure that McKenna, just like all her other dolls and animals, will develop diabetes soon and be subjected to countless blood sugar checks and injections. (Read about her doll Sophie.) And yes, every chance I get I tell my contact at American Girl that they need to make a medical ID bracelet for the dolls!

If your daughter does gymnastics or you are really into the Olympics, you might check out the McKenna doll and books.

This week I headed to Indianapolis to the Lilly Diabetes headquarters with about a dozen other bloggers for the Second Annual Blogger Summit.

I love these events because it gives me a chance to see some of my online friends in person. And it always feels like I’m reuniting with old friends.

While the day focused on exchange between us and a selection of employees including the president of the Diabetes Division Enrique Conterno, I think as parents of kids with diabetes you will be interested in the continuing collaboration between Lilly and Disney. I will definitely circle back and give you some thoughts on the event as a whole, but I wanted to share this aspect first.

These are the current Lilly Diabetes and Disney books for children. There is an additional ESPN title not shown.

We have not had a chance to read these books yet, but I will definitely let you know our thoughts as we read each one over the summer. The two ESPN books are geared towards newly diagnosed tweens. The Hannah Montana book is based on the episode of the same name, which aired a couple of years ago.

Flipping through the cookbook, many of the recipes look interesting and ones that my kids would actually eat. Each of the recipes features a different Disney character (not all are princesses!) and a tip. The recipes include portion sizes and carb counts. I’m appreciative that while some of the recipes have sugar, none use artificial sweeteners. We were served the brownies and cobbler for dessert and both were really good. The brownies were a bit small, but at 11 carbs each, who am I to complain?

I think it’s a testament to both Lilly Diabetes and Disney that they are continuing to develop these books and add content to the Family.com site. I think we’ll see more from this collaboration…hopefully there are more Coco books and the addition of teen books down the line. I’d like to see the characters in the books move past the newly diagnosed stage and begin dealing with issues that T1 kids face in school, sports, and their every day lives. Too bad Coco can only say “Eek!” and can’t share her true feelings about her diabetes, though.

(Coco was an existing Disney character.)

Like the previous title Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day, these titles will be available from pediatric endocrinologists. Ask your endo for copies and if they don’t have them, tell them to request them from their Lilly sales rep. They are available for patients in the US only.

We bloggers stressed the need to Lilly staff to find ways to distribute these books more easily to families so that they get into the hands of the T1 children, friends, and caregivers who can benefit from them. I personally think they need to be in school and public libraries. They took note, so I hope that you will be able to get your hands on them a little more easily.

Disclosure: Lilly Diabetes paid for my travel expenses and lodging. They also provided me with copies of these titles so that our family can read them. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions are always my own.

In the last couple of weeks I shared the news of the Lilly Diabetes and Disney partnership which includes the first (of many) children’s books about diabetes and a writing contest with an unbelievable prize. It has a positive message of what children with diabetes and their families can do, not what they shouldn’t do.

Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day

Because our 4yo loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and even had that as his theme for his recent birthday party, Q assumed the new book Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day was for him, not her! When he saw it he immediately wanted to read it three times in a row. And then he used my iPhone to take pictures of the pages (and then about 20 more pictures of his trains!).

I didn’t think too much of it until the next morning when announced that he needed to get his pack for his diabetes and needed to check his finger.

He is at the age were he is into role playing and when he gets into character, he gets completely into character. So his new character is much like Coco: he has diabetes and all the accoutrements to go along with it. Though when he brought me Q’s PDM, he didn’t really want me to poke his finger!

Since he was only 10 months old when his older sister was diagnosed, he hasn’t really known a life without it. It’s not that he really understands what it means at this point, but he knows the care routine that we go through each day with Q. He even asks for a juice or Smarties when Q is low!

I think this book, while not intended for him specifically, is helping to open up a dialog with him about diabetes.

Q and I read the book together at bedtime that night (and several times since). She still enjoys Mickey Mouse Clubhouse even though she’s almost 7. We have many of the Mickey books on our bookshelf. I think that she was happiest because there is a Disney character who has diabetes.

What I found to be a particularly good resource for opening up a dialog with her was the Q&A at the end of the book in the section “From Coco’s World to Yours.”

“This section provides some simple questions and answers about the story. We hope it will help you begin a conversation about diabetes, whether you’re speaking with your child, your child’s siblings, or your child’s friends.”

The questions at the end of the book are:

What is diabetes?

Why does Coco wear a bracelet with the word DIABETES on it?

What kinds of foods can Coco eat with type 1 diabetes?

What does Coco carry in her backpack?

Why does Coco get her blood sugar (glucose) checked?

I think those question are spot on! They are exactly the kinds of questions I have heard Q’s schoolmates ask. And as such, this would be a perfect book to read to preschool and early elementary school children, especially if teachers take the time to do the Q&A, which they should.

When Q was diagnosed at three, she was still in preschool. I went on our local library’s website looking for titles to request that we might read to her and to her classmates. There were none. I called the children’s librarian and he couldn’t come up with any either. I did end up finding a few books, but they all left something to be desired.

In fact for years when I read the Rufus book I even skipped over sentences here and there.

I guess my issue with some books for newly diagnosed children is that they end with wanting to find a cure. At the time I needed Q to accept her new medical condition and realize that it was okay. I felt that books that talked about the cure made it seem like she was somehow deficient and that she wouldn’t be okay until a cure was found. And we all know that it won’t be in the next five years!

My only criticism of the book is that Coco doesn’t speak and only says “Eek!” which somehow her friends are able to interpret into long, complex sentences. It’s the whole “Why can Goofy talk, but not Pluto?” question. That she only says eek might be because this is a character who has already appeared on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in earlier episodes. But it would be nice in future books if Coco could tell us how she feels, not through an interpreter.

And in true D-Mom style, Coco’s mom stays for the party to help her check her blood sugar, make good food choices, and get insulin. Darn, I wish Disney and Lily had come up with a solution for this birthday party and playdate D-Mom conundrum!

Q asked, as many of you have, if there will be a plush Coco doll. The answer is no. But just think of how valuable that would be to comfort children at diagnosis and beyond. And I know most families would be willing to pay for one. I hope Lilly Diabetes and Disney get the hint that we want a Coco plush. Hint, hint!

The book will be available from healthcare providers including pediatric endocrinologists at no charge. They will not be available for retail sale.